Everything posted by Kerry Langford

I do realise this is a long shot but it would be interesting if someone could either recognise or point me in the right direction to be able to decifer what is written here.
The letter is from Cecil Beadon to Henry Carre Tucker during the Mutiny war.

' Field Marshal Robert Cornelius Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala GCB, GCSI, FRS (6 December 1810 – 14 January 1890)' This could be the one that was mentioned.
I'm enjoying the letters, both interesting as well as some lessons learned in how exquisite the correspondence between people should be put to paper. The respect is amazing to see.

'John Peter Grant went up on Thursday last to assume the functions of Gnl in the central provinces till communications are restored with Agra. Outram goes with him to command the troops in the Dinapur and Cawnpore Divisions, and Napier the chief of his staff is a first rate man of the Neill stamp – the effects of the removal of Gnl Lloyd from Dinapur are already visible and the substitution of Samuells for Mr Taylor at Patna is of the greatest promise. Taylors order for the abandonment of the outstations is perhaps the most mischievious thing that has been done yet, always excepting the military imbecility at Meermut and Dinapur'
Would that be the same Napier mentioned in the para above? Ironically in the same letter

Good day all,
Here's a letter from the DoW. There is a name mentioned 'Mr Augustus Henry Jernan' that I can't seem to find any info on. If there is someone who has access to the records from the Cadet Office at India House it would be great to see what this lad eventually did with his life.
Much appreciated,
Kerry
Letter Contents.docx

Hi Jack,
This is a letter from the Duke of Wellington to Henry St. George Tucker who was heavily involved in the East India Company. He stood as Director for many years as well as serving as Chairman twice. I have been involved in the Tucker side of things for a a few years now. A good friend of mine is the direct lineage from Henry St. George Tucker.
The fact that Augustus was recommended by by the Duke says something about him. Do you have any info you can shed regarding both Ternan and Reed about their lives? Would be fantastic if you have something.
Cheers,

Brilliant Peter, as I read letters from the war it gets more interesting. Try wrap your head around this one:
Distance between Raniganj and Benares - 488 km's
Distance between Ranigang and Calcutta - 170 km's
That's 658 km's at the greatest distance between the two bodies involved in this letter.
Once you've read the letter below think of the way in which the messages were delivered, then the time in which that took and finally, if you look at his number of dispatches per day they could accomplish think of the amount of men and the logistics it involved just simply getting this one letter through. Then think of the amount of time the Bullock Trains took! It's mind boggling!
2nd June 1857
To: Henry Carre Tucker (Comissioner of Benares - now Varanasi)
From: Sir Cecil Beadon (Lt/Governor of Bengal Presidency based in Calcutta - now Kolkata)
- The absolute limit to our daily dispatch of dawk carriages from Raniganj is ten, and generally we can only accomplish nine.
- To maintain even this rate, necessary that the carriages should not remain a day in Benares, but should return instantly
- In the same way our Bullock train accommodation between Nuwabganj and Sherghati is limited to 96 men a day
- Greatest number therefore that we can convey between these two places daily is 120; and anything that tends to cripple our means of conveyance limits the number of men we can send
- Now your Bullock train is quite unlimited and though of course the pace is comparatively slow, yet it is of far more importance that a large body of Europeans should be as speedily as possible collected at Benares than a few of them should be pushed on to Allahabad with extreme rapidity to the sacrifice of the former object
- It is of no use encouraging a larger means of from the Soan (river) to Benares, unless we can strengthen our establishment between Raniganj and the Soan of which at present there seems little prospect.
- Unfortunately wagons cannot travel in the hills and the number of carts available is very small.
C. Beadon
P.S.
- Your first batch of 120 ought to arrive the day after tomorrow.
- The men I fear will be fatigued by the journey in such heat as this.
- If Sikhs can be used anywhere with advantage it must be between Benares and Allahabad

Owen, thank you plenty for pointing that out. Seems the Duke put forward a decent cadet. Now to find out a bit more about his grandfather Colonel Reed.
Thank you once again, it's interesting reading his letters. Gives a good idea of what the man was about.
Cheers,

No medals anymore unfortunately but there some very interesting letters I have through the Mutiny years. Here's one to Henry Carre Tucker from Lord Canning. There are a number of other names that have come up in a variety of other letters but still doing some research on these figures.
Enjoy

Evening all,
I have tried to do a bit of research on the history of this cup but don't seem to be getting too far. If there is anyone that can shed some light on this it would be nothing less than interesting
Inscription:
Kellner's Cup
Simla Races
1895
Presented By
(C or G) F. Kellner & Co.
Won by
Col Tuckers Cock Robin
Obviously some form of horse/bird/dog race or whatever they did for fun in those days.
Thanks plenty

Hey guys,
This is more for anyone's interest than anything else.
I have a fair number of documents like these. still obviously have to have them interpreted as I have no idea how to speak or read French. oldest date so far seems to be late 1700's so we'll see how far we get with this.
If there is anything of value that I come across in the next year I will definitely post. This is unfortunately going to take a while and I still have to locate someone in Cape Town who would be interested to take this on as a project. If anyone knows of a body who would care to look at them I would obviously be most grateful.
Cheers.

The cup has been tested and found to be silver but the ironic thin is there are no markings whatsoever on the cup so as for specific dating etc I can't do the tracing. The cup does fall in line with all the Tuckers so it was definitely from that time. The Colonel would be Louis Henry Emile Tucker who was with the Bengal Infantry at the time.

There is an additional number 10966 on the side of the medal - force number maybe. Unfortunately the friend I am doing this for has no further info other than the 2 medals I have - KSA and QSA.
KSA - South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902.
QSA - Driefontein, Paardeberg and Relief of Kimberley
That's it I'm afraid. I have been trolling the web but coming up with blanks. My limited experience might be my downfall here.
Thanks plenty for any help here

Tudor Henry St. George Tucker - still a fair amount of information to gather on this one but this is what I have so far:
Born 1878
First commissioned to the service 4th Aug 1897
Died 1917 of Typhoid.
Details are sketchy at best but we are working on it.
Pic 1: Tirah/Punjab campaign
Pic 2: Star - British War - Victory
Pic 3: Dead Mans Penny
These are the last of the medals I have received but will update if anything else crops up